Correlates of change in student reported parent involvement in schooling: a new look at the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988.

Using a subsample (2174 students, 174 schools) from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS), this study drew on Eccles and Harold's (1996) framework of parent involvement in schooling to estimate the relative influence of key child, family, and school characteristics on change in three types of student-reported parent involvement in schooling between eighth and tenth grades: home communication about school, monitoring, and direct interactions with schools. It also examines relationships between changes in involvement, change in grade point average (GPA), and dropout. Overall, measured school effects accounted for a small proportion of the variation in changes in home communication and direct parent interactions with schools. Sustained home communication related to higher grades and lower likelihood of dropout, although the size of effects was small.